When you are very low on health it helps you by increasing your life drain. Very important talent.ĭeath's Embrace 3/3 - What this talent does is subtle but important in my opinion. Malediction 3/3 - Big increase to your spell damage and also increases the damage from your most important DoTs. This drains your pet's mana and gives it to you. Solid DPS talent.ĭark Pact 1/1 -Another Affliction warlock signature spell.
Essential talent.Ĭontagion 5/5 - Essentially, in a PvE setting, this talent provides a 5% increase to your CoA and Corruption. Shadow Mastery 5/5 - Flat increase to shadow damage and also life drain. If you also prefer a Felhunter, then this talent is a must because it allows your pet to quickly recover mana that you will then drain with Dark Pact. Improved Felhunter 2/2 - Some people prefer to use an Imp but I prefer the Felhunter because this guy is not as fragile as the Imp and deals pretty good damage. It's a small amount but if you throw corruption on several enemies at once, it makes a big difference. Siphon Life 1/1 - I would consider this talent a vital one, as it heals you when your Corruption deals damage. Shadow Embrace 5/5 - I only use Shadow Bolt when the instant cast from Nightfall procs but I usually open with Haunt so this spell basically increases all DoT damage by 5% which is nifty. Besides, the same result can be augmented by the Glyph of Corruption.Įmpowered Corruption 3/3 - Another increase in power to your Corruption except this one looks at your total spell power. It is customary to pick only 1 rank here because the second rank isn't as useful as the first. This one gives you a small chance for an instant Shadow Bolt each time your Corruption and Drain Life tick. Nightfall 1/2 - Now here's a more interesting talent. Grim Reach 2/2 - This one only improves the range of your Affliction spells but these are your main spells anyway and I consider it a fairly useful talent because it allows me to run through my entire rotation before a mob reaches me. This talent is vital for a drain-tanking warlock. This talent ensures that you will still be able to cast while you're getting pummeled. Soul Siphon 2/2 - This talent has been beefed up nicely in recent patches and it improves your survivability as well as your ability to recuperate mana and health.įel Concentration 3/3 - Even as an Affliction warlock, some of your spells are not instant. Improved Life Tap 2/2 - Life Tap is part of your rotation as a warlock and this talent makes it more efficient by giving you more mana in return for the same amount of life. As an added bonus it also lowers your threat, which comes in handy in a group. Some people skip this but I have always found it useful. Improved Drain Soul 2/2 -You will be draining plenty of souls in order to get Soul Shards so this talent is very nice in helping you recover a fair amount of your mana. Improved Corruption 5/5 - Corruption is one of your main DoTs and this talent improves it nicely. Suppression 3/3 - Extra chance to hit and reduces the cost of all your affliction spells. Improved Curse of Agony 2/2 - CoA is your main curse so you need this. What follows is an explanation for each talent that I've picked. I've also included the glyphs that I prefer but in the case of the Major ones, there are several other appealing ones that you might consider. This spec, therefore, might not be ideal for raiding but I wouldn't be ashamed to use it in a 5-man instance. Once again, since I'm the archetypal solo player, I've picked talents which seemed solid from a single-player perspective. What follows is an explanation of my spec at level 80. A leveling and/or solo-ing Affliction warlock is versed in the art of drain tanking as I will explain further on for those who aren't familiar with the concept.
Zero downtime is an Affliction warlocks' trademark.
One big benefit to leveling as Affliction is that, if your rotation is right, you should always be topped off in terms of mana and health. I felt Destruction played too much like a mage and Demonology too much like a hunter. I have always loved Affliction because it makes the warlock class unique. Still, thanks to two heirloom items, flying and fully rested XP, it wasn't a hard journey.Īpart from a short stint with Demonology, I have leveled my warlock 1-80 almost exclusively with Affliction. I could have probably done it a lot sooner but I reached a point where I'm tired of leveling yet another character through Northrend. I finally hit 80 on my warlock a couple of days ago.